The Island Book Review

The book narrates the story of a town in Creta called Plaka and its neighbouring island, Spinalonga. The island used to be the leper colony of Greece. The story is mostly focused on the Petrakis family which consists of the following people, the parents Eleni, Giorgis, and the two daughters, Anna and Maria. Eleni is the school teacher till one day she finds out that she is a leper and she is moved in the island, and the story starts there. I must admit that the ideas in this book were nice, but they were so undeveloped, the characters had nothing to say, and although the story had potential, that was not enough. Although the book tried to talk about love and family it did it in such a blunt way that it just was not engaging at the end.

What I disliked the most was the fact that it went through events that were important without actually leaving such a great impact on the characters. In my opinion events shape a person and you cannot dismiss them. The best way I can explain this is by saying that the characters of the book only lived within its pages, but could never come close to being entity’s, human beings that could live in the world out there. That is just it. I did not like the way this book was written. Probably the only reason I am giving it 2. 5 stars is because I am a bit effected from the TV series which for the first time in history was so much better than the book. I do not know, if you want to pick this book up, then do so, it is not unpleasant to read after all, but I would not personally recommend it.